


Rewind

by tenrosemollcroft



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Het, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-06-29 03:17:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 14,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19821448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenrosemollcroft/pseuds/tenrosemollcroft
Summary: The Doctor goes further than he expects during 'The Big Bang'





	1. Chapter 1

“I think I'll skip the rest of the rewind – I hate repeats” the Doctor took a deep breath, holding back his tears as he stood up from beside Amelia's bed. He lent over and kissed her forehead. “Live well. Love Rory.” he whispered. His eyes shifted towards the crack in her wall. “Bye bye Pond.”

Amelia jolted up from her bed as a flash of light permeated her moonlit bedroom. She thought it was just her mum or dad turning on the light, but as she lay down again, she noticed that the crack in her wall was gone. For a moment, she thought she saw the shadow of a tall, skinny man. But, when she blinked, he was gone. Amelia shook her head and threw herself back into her bed.


	2. Chapter 2

Meanwhile, the Doctor was waking up. His vision was blurred and his surroundings were spinning, but he could tell he was in the TARDIS as she sent a telepathic nudge. “Oh. Okay. I escaped then! Again? Brilliant! Love it when I do that!” 

Despite his glee at surviving, something still felt wrong, so he did all round checks, muttering out loud to himself. “Legs, yes! Bow tie, no – wait – what?”  
Instead of the familiar silky feel of his favourite red bow tie, he was yanking at a long thin dark tie. He looked down and felt his hearts stutter. There was no tweed jacket, no red braces. Instead, there was a a pinstriped jacket, a brown overcoat, a pair of red converse that seemed far too bright against the brown. Had he gone back to the moments after his regeneration? And in that case, why did his legs feel too long, why could he feel the mole between his shoulder blades and the slight weakness in his dorsal tubercle? He ran his hands frantically through his hair. Instead of his usual fluffy mop, it was soft and gelled up.

Once he had stopped shouting in horror and sat up, he realised that not only was he in his old body – he was in his old TARDIS. The walls were made of coral and the room seemed darker, smaller. A voice pierced the air and the Doctor's mind screeched to a halt.  
“Doctor? Doctor?! This ain't funny Doctor!”  
It was definitely a female voice. It wasn't Amy's familiar Scottish burr. Martha had been too quiet to dare shout or demand anything from the Doctor. Donna – oh Donna – her temper had been a lot more fiery and her voice was much rougher. No, this voice was mischievous and sweet. It was a voice that the Doctor had never expected to hear again. His hand gripped the grating beneath him, his knuckles turning white.

Rose Tyler.


	3. Chapter 3

He barely recognised her after so long and it nearly broke his hearts. He had forgotten how big her eyes looked, outlined in heavy black liner. He had forgotten her favourite shoes were a matching pair to his in pink. He had forgotten how bright her hair bleach was. He laughed at the memory of the smell of peroxide that would stink out the TARDIS every month. He had forgotten the specks of gold in her green eyes and the corners of her mouth that crinkled when she laughed.

Rose spun around when she heard him laugh and her eyes widened, welling with tears, when she saw him. “Doctor?”  
His hearts broke all over again and the ghost of his laugh fell from his face at the distress on her face.  
“Rose.”   
“Are you real?”  
She gripped the stair railings and hopped down onto the grating. She looked hesitant, scared.  
“Rose, it's me.” the Doctor had hoped she wouldn't be angry.  
“Doctor,” she whispered, tears rolling down her face and smudging her mascara.  
“Yes. Rose, it's me. God, Rose!” He whimpered, dragging her into a tight embrace. He never wanted to let go. He expected her pull back, to to hammer her fists against his chest, but instead, she just collapsed against his arms.  
“I'm back,”  
“I'm as shocked as you. How long has it been for you? Wait – how are you even here?”  
Her look of astonishment fell and the Doctor regretted his words straight away.   
“We used the Dimension Cannon again. Mum and Pete came with me, they didn't think I could cope on my own.”   
“But I sealed the walls again! And I left you with him – the metacrisis!”  
“There were a few tiny cracks left in the natural fabric of the universe. The Reality Bomb destroyed some planets before Donna could stop it – don't worry, they were uninhabited – and it left gaps in the fabric of the universe. You didn't think to check, did you?”  
“But you were happy. You took him in. He loved you.”  
“Yep. He loved me. Past tense. I can guess what happened - you had to erase Donna's memory and that version of her is dead?” Rose asked. The Doctor's eyes skipped down to his shoes and he managed just one nod. Rose cupped his chin and wiped away a stray tear.  
“I know you didn't have a choice, Doctor. I know she would have died. But he died too, Doctor. He had the same DNA as Donna. We had 3 days together, but he just dropped one evening. I tried everything, but he was already gone.”  
“3 days? Donna was only with me for another 10 minutes.” A horrible thought dawned on the Doctor. “How long has it been for you Rose?”  
“A year.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Well, I can. But it just takes me longer than everyone else.”  
“Bad Wolf” a look of realisation dawned on the Doctor's face. “But, look what it's done. I'm so sorry! My god, I've doomed you.”  
“Doctor, you haven't, I swear.”  
“You'll outlive everyone. Your mum, your dad, your brother!”  
“I can be with you.” She cupped his cheek. “I said forever and I meant it.”  
“B-b-but...mphm!” the Doctor began to protest, but Rose cut him off, the only way she could think of doing. She plunged her hands into his hair, bringing his face down to hers and crashing their lips together, teeth clacking. At his surprised gasp, she chased his tongue back into his mouth. She pressed close to him, tugging roughly at his hair as his hands slid under her shirt and up her bare back. She nipped at his lower lip before releasing it and stepping away. “Damn, I've missed that after a year,” she said with a cocky smirk. 

She wiggled her hips and turned away, making to go down the corridor to her old bedroom, but she was stopped by a strong hand on her shoulder. The Doctor was about to let her go – he was willing to give her anything she wanted in the universe right now. But nobody teased him. Especially not Rose Tyler – especially not like that.   
He swept her up in his arms, leaning forward and murmuring against her lips. “Is this okay, Rose?”  
She grabbed his lapels, pulling him forwards that last millimetre. The kiss was more gentle, as they both explored each other all over again. Her hand snaked down, which he was oblivious to until she wrapped her hot little hand around his manhood, sizing him up.  
“Fuck, Rose!” he shouted, bucking into her hand.   
“Bedroom?” she broke the kiss, panting slightly and all he could do was nod, almost dragging her along.


	5. Chapter 5

He had picked her up at some point when they were staggering down the corridors, giggling from the high of their arousal.  
He kicked the door open to his room and she buried her head in his shoulder, suddenly shy.  
“Rose? What's wrong?”  
“I've never seen your room before and we've never done, well, this. I'm giving you time to change your mind.”  
She blinked away some tears furiously, but the Doctor didn't miss the gleam in her eyes.  
“I wanted to say it earlier, but it just didn't seem right. I've wanted this since the Autons. And Rose Tyler, I love you too.”  
With that simple phrase that meant so much to the both of them, her passion was renewed and she was yanked at his shirt.  
It had been a year since the Doctor had worn his pinstriped suit and he had forgotten how heavy the trench coat had been to shrug off at the end of each day.   
Whilst he struggled with his jacket and coat, Rose had flung her shirt over the end of the bed and wiggled out of her denim skirt (a duplicate of the one that the Doctor loved so much when she wore it to their little trip in 2012 London).  
She giggled impatiently and reached out, tearing at his shirt and sending buttons flying across the room.   
His eyes filled with dark lust, he pushed her back on to the mountain of pillows (that he would later thank the TARDIS for) and crawled over her.   
“You like undressing me, Rose?”   
She nodded, wordless, as his hand snuck under the lace of her bra.   
The sound of his hands tugging at his fly were drowned out by his pants and her little whimpers of “please,” as he pinched each nipple between his long fingers.  
“These fingers can do more than that, Rose,”  
“I'm counting on it,” she gasped, still finding the energy to make the Doctor laugh when she was in the throes of passion. “Do you,” she stopped for a breath. “Do you know how hot it was all those years ago, watching you touch everything? Lick everything?”  
Her words seemed to act like a charm because he thrust into her thigh, his long, hard length trapped between them.   
“You're naked,” she gasped, surprised at herself that she hadn't noticed before.  
“You're not.” He growled.  
“Then fix it.”

With that, he crawled his way down her body, stopping at her core and using his teeth to drag her knickers down.   
Rose went to kick them out the way and the Doctor sat back on his haunches so he didn't get kicked too. It gave her a good, long look and she whistled quietly.  
“Blimey,”  
He glanced down at himself, his hand (almost unconsciously) squeezing himself. “It's all you.”  
He gasped as her hand shoved his aside and wrapped around his length, dragging the precum from the tip to the base. 

“You don't think you can tell a girl it's just her and think she'll do nothing?” she dropped down on to the mattress with a cheeky smile and looked up at him from under her lashes.  
Before he could say anything, she engulfed him in her mouth. The Doctor waved his hands about until she grabbed one hand, squeezing it gently. Her other hand was slightly preoccupied, so he buried his spare hand in her hair.  
With a newfound sense of desparation, she works her mouth around his cock, sucking, nipping, licking enough to make him groan primally.   
He's gasping her name and digging his fingers into her scalp and she agrees silently. But then, he's saying it in a different tone, a frantic tone and she lets go just enough to ask what's wrong.  
“I, I, I want to be inside you, the first time,” he stutters and she suddenly understands, giving him one last squeeze before shuffling back up the bed and raising her hips, unable to ignore the throb at her core any longer.   
He thrust into her, his thighs shaking as he swallowed her moan with a kiss. She drew his tongue into her mouth greedily, biting down lightly.  
By the time they broke apart for air, Rose could feel the coil in her stomach tightening and she could feel the Doctor's balls drawing up. He was saying something and she forced her eyes open, ignoring the rhymtic thump of the headboard.  
“Rose.” he kept repeating, until she clenched and he said “that's, god, you're, you feel,”  
“So do you,” she gasped.  
He snaked a hand between their bodies and rubbed roughly at her clit.  
“Tell me you're close, Rose,” he murmured into her breast.  
“God, yeah,” her voice had gone squeaky and she felt him smile.  
“You like that?”  
Rose could only nod.  
“How many times did you do this? Alone in your room in the TARDIS?”  
“So many!”  
“Did you think about me?”  
She nodded again. A few years ago, she'd have never admitted that, even to herself, but now she was just painfully aroused by it. “It was always you, Doctor! Your hand, your mouth, your, your,”  
His hand slowed, his hips stuttering, teasing her. “My what, Rose?”  
“Your cock!”  
“Ohh, like this?” And with that, he thrust into her even further and she shrieked, biting down on his shoulder and digging her nails into his back. Her walls clenched around him and he shuddered, suddenly spilling himself into her with a shout of “oh, my Rose!”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've posted more than one chapter today just because I forgot yesterday :)

Rose and the Doctor lay side by side, both completely sated. The Doctor had an enormous bed, but they were closer than they'd ever been before.   
The Doctor gradually untangled himself and propped himself up on an elbow, trying not to get too big headed as he noticed her flushed cheeks and mussed hair.   
“You're such a typical bloke,”  
“I am not!” he squeaked. “I'm the last of the Time Lords,” he tried to puff his chest out, but it wasn't as impressive with a sweaty bare chest and a sheet draped around his hips.   
“I know you like the back of my hand and - ”  
“I would hope so, after that,” interrupted the Doctor with a smirk and she swatted at him, laughing.  
“I was saying – I know what you look like when you're proud of yourself.”  
“Okay, yes, I'm pretty proud of myself. Why shouldn't I be? But we need to talk.”  
“Are you breaking up with me?” a look of faux horror crossed her face and she squeezed his hand playfully.   
“Don't be silly,” he laughed. “But seriously, we need to figure out what happened. I get that you were using the Dimension Cannon and I get that I was rewinding but -”  
“Rewinding? What?”  
“I'll explain later. I should be dead, not back in this body. You logically shouldn't be able to materialise inside the TARDIS. I kind of understand why though, she always loved you. So the big question is, when are we?”  
“You said there was no such thing as time on the TARDIS.”  
“That's not what I mean. Where are we in our timestreams? I'm in my tenth body again, but you never appeared to me again after the stars went out. Is this before or after Jackson, Christina, Adelaide, Elizabeth?” he paused briefly. “Wilf and the Master and Gallifrey?”  
“Wait – what? I thought Gallifrey was gone? Why did Wilf come back? And didn't you tell me that the Master was dead?”  
“Gallifrey is still gone, but Rassilon used the Master to try to escape and I had to stop them both from destroying Earth. Wilf helped me.”  
“Was he okay?” Rose had taken a liking to the spirited old man who had helped her when she came to find Donna.  
“He was fine. Me, on the other hand...”

And so the Doctor explained everything to her. He explained how Carmen had mentioned four knocks, how he thought he was going to die at the hands of the Master, how he had absorbed the radiation. Rose wiped away his tears when he told her about going back to see her in 2005. 

He spoke of bow ties and Amelia Pond and Rory Williams, how they had been led to Stonehenge. And how he rewound after kickstarting the Second Big Bang.

Rose looked slightly shellshocked.   
She finally spoke. “Are you still... rewinding?”  
“I don't think so. I think the transition to this old body drew all the remaining energy out of me.”  
“But you're gonna die.” it wasn't a question and her eyes filled with tears.   
“Yes.” he didn't want to lie to her or give her false hope, but a plan was already forming in his mind. “But this is my second chance.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I don't get on that bus and I don't hear Carmen's prophecy. I don't go to Mars and I let history run its course. I go to Broadfell Prison instead of bouncing around with Elizabeth and – well, I'll rescue Lucy Saxon first, of course - but I'll stop the Master's cult. I alert the police about the Naismiths and they get arrested before anything else can happen.”  
Rose interrupted. “You drop in on Wilf and let him know there's nothing to worry about.”  
“That's what I love about you. The domestic approach.” and with that, he rolled them over and captured her unspoken words in a kiss.


	7. Chapter 7

And that was just what he did. Instead of pursuying the wormhole, he hung around at the edge of the tunnel until the bus safely drove through without passing into San Helios. Of course, the police followed Christina, lights and sirens blaring, so he discretely slipped out the sonic screwdriver, ensuring that the car would break down. He popped into UNIT and told them about Barclay and Nathan.

He didn't go to Mars. Rose held his hand and he bit his cheek when they read the storyline that they had all died. He felt a pang of guilt for Adelaide, who would rot on Mars, instead of being buried on Earth. He felt a pang of guilt for Yuri and Roman, who had previously survived. He went to see Adelaide's daughter and insisted that anyone who went to Mars in future should not drink the water.

Rose was the one who knocked on the door in Chiswick. Sylvia wasn't happy to see her and she was even more annoyed when she realised who had sent her. Rose and Wilf hurried off down the street to the TARDIS, leaving Sylvia shouting after them.  
“Are you shouting at thin air?” Donna appeared from the house and asked her mother, who reluctantly agreed that yes, she was.  
The Doctor explained everything to Wilf and expected him to be upset. Instead, he was apologetic that his alternate self had caused the alternate Doctor to regenerate. He clapped the Doctor on the back and congratulated him on getting Rose back, then hurried off back to his family for his Christmas lunch. During their hug, the Doctor slipped a lottery ticket into Wilf's pocket. As Wilf sat at the dining table that afternoon, he realised that the Doctor had once made Donna better, but Shaun made her better too. 

Rose wanted to see Mickey to let him know she was back. The Doctor saved Mickey and Martha from the Sontaran, before hurrying down the stairs with Rose to greet them. Martha and Mickey were ecstatic that Rose and the Doctor were now a couple. This confused Rose and the Doctor, since they had previously been so jealous, but they quickly explained their marriage.

Rose wanted to see Jack to let him know she was back. He gently explained to her that Jack was heartbroken after Ianto's death, but the Doctor couldn't have saved Ianto because it was a fixed point in time – which Jack knew too. He took Rose to see Jack in an alien bar. He was sitting next to an young man in a uniform, who had his arm in a sling and Rose thought she saw the Doctor grin. They spent hours sitting at the alien bar, talking. Jack smirked when he noticed the Doctor place his hand on the small of her back and started making crude jokes. Rose offered to take him back on the TARDIS, but Jack declined, wanting to spend some more time alone, but he promised to stay safe. The Doctor left him a phone number for UNIT.

Rose wanted to make sure that her mum and dad and brother were okay back in this universe, so the Doctor took them to see Jackie and Pete. They were living in another flat which had the same layout, but it was bigger and slightly fancier. Rose took great delight in being shown around by her mum and the Doctor took great delight in telling stories to Tony and, once he was asleep, talking about alien gadgets with Pete. 

The Doctor kept an eye on Amelia. He watched as her mum and dad would play with her in the park every day after school. She grew older and he watched her stroll down the street with Rory and another friend – a girl called Mels. Once, when the family were out, he soniced himself into their home (against Rose's protests) and peered into her bedroom. Previously, models of him and the TARDIS had cluttered the room, but they were all gone now.  
He took the TARDIS forwards, to when Amy was 21. To when he had whisked her off Starship UK. He watched her marry Rory and move back to Scotland. He watched her graduate university with an writing degree and get pregnant. He sniggered when Rory grew a ponytail. He laughed when Melody was born and Amy insisted that she was a Pond. The birth of their daughter made him retreat, without a hint of sorrow in his hearts. He was scared what would have happened, had Amy got pregnant whilst travelling with him. Would the baby have been normal? Would some alien have stolen the baby?  
After leaving Amy and Rory to their life with baby Melody, he wondered what had happened to River Song. He explained to Rose that he owed it to River to make sure she was okay after they had narrowly escaped death with the Weeping Angels and the Pandorica. He searched across the universe for her, even getting the TARDIS to set up a scan, but apparently she no longer existed.


	8. Chapter 8

In between trips to check up on their friends, they travelled to wonderous new worlds. They went to underwater worlds with very friendly fish (“they're not fish, Rose, they're Taulians,”). They went to planets made completely of shrubs and planets of perputual darkness (“that torch won't work,”) and planets with constant acid rain (“I know a lovely picnic spot, pack a gas mask,”).  
When they were tired of exploring, they'd lie back on the beanbags in the observatory or library and talk. Rose would tell him of the differences in Pete's World – the elements that hadn't yet been discovered, the countries with different names, the bands who had never broken up. The Doctor would tell her of the Starwhale and the Saturnyns and the Dream Lord and the Silurians and Vincent Van Gogh and Craig Owens.

And they had sex. Lots of sex.   
The Doctor piloting the TARDIS, Rose kneeling under the console with his cock in her mouth.  
His trench coat fluttering around them as he spilled himself into her in a field on an alien planet.  
Her head thrown back over the jump seat as he knelt between her thighs.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 8 was incredibly short so I've given you 2 chapters today :)

But Rose was worried about the Doctor.   
“Doctor, what's wrong?” she would ask. And he would usually deny that anything was wrong and drag her off to another beautiful planet. Where they'd save the day and celebrate by having sex.

One day, however, he sat down with a sigh. “I can't do it.”  
“Can't do what?”   
“I can't destroy the Master. Broadfell Prison – we never went.”  
And it dawned on Rose. They had reported the Naismiths and stopped the build up to the Master, but they had never killed him.  
Stopping the Master would mean the Doctor really was the last Time Lord. 

She took his hand.  
“Doctor, you have to. You don't want to die, do you?” he shook his head, looking up at her from the jump seat like a small child. “You will, unless you stop him. He was made out of death anyway, that's what he told you, wasn't it? Gallifrey died a long time ago and it wasn't your fault,”   
His eyes widened at that. “How is it not my fault, Rose? It's completely my fault!”  
“No, it's not. You didn't start the Time War. You made such a brave sacrifice and I'd have never been born otherwise. Nobody would have. They would have destroyed the universe.”  
The Doctor was silent and they both just sat there for a little while. Then the Doctor finally nodded.  
“Okay. Okay, I'll do it.”  
“Well done. When?”  
“Now.”

In the blink of an eye, he threw himself at the console and yanked at the lever. Rose nearly fell and had to grab the railings as the TARDIS wheezed and rolled around in the vortex.   
They finally shuddered to a halt and the Doctor made for the door, his eyes icy. She went to follow him, but he held out a hand to stop her.   
“No. I do this one alone.”  
“But -”  
“This is too dangerous. Not just the fact that I'm blowing up a prison. But the fact that the Master is nearly there and he can stop even me, Rose.”  
She didn't protest. The look in his eyes stopped her. She pulled him in for a kiss then pushed him gently towards the door.  
“Good luck.”

The Doctor had been gone a while, but Rose had been watching the monitor intently with the volume turned right up, knowing the TARDIS would let her know of any trouble. On the TARDIS, people lost sense of time, so she only knew he had been gone a while by the fact that her stomach was rumbling loudly.  
Reluctantly, Rose dragged herself to the kitchen when the monitor switched itself off and the TARDIS hummed stubbornly at her.  
She wanted a strong drink to soothe her nerves (as Jackie taught her how to do) and sent a telepathic plea to the TARDIS, who kept the kitchen stocked.   
But the TARDIS refused to provide any Martian wine or Eclipse (a cider from the shrub planet). Rose didn't think it strange – Gallifreyans didn't drink alcohol so the TARDIS wasn't fond of Rose's drinking habit.   
Rose sighed and closed the fridge, sending another telepathic plea for sushi.  
She opened the fridge again – no sushi. There was, however, a glass of milk and a bowl of porridge. With a sigh, she picked them up and went to the table, but with the first mouthful of porridge, her stomach rolled and she had to run to the bathroom, throwing up noisily. 

She groaned and reached for her toothbrush to get rid of the sour taste in her mouth.  
“I must be coming down with something,” she muttered. The Doctor had once told her that it was impossible to get food poisoning from the food that the TARDIS provided.   
Her stomach still hurt, so she went to the medicine cabinet and reached for the indigestion tablets – and her heart nearly stopped. She always hid them behind her medicines because, it was silly, but she was slightly embarrassed since she knew the Doctor was fascinated by humans. 

Tampons.

Tampons that hadn't been used for two months.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little shout out to TimeLadyHope :)  
> This is my first published Doctor Who fanfic and she's been really supportive since Chapter 1, thank you!!

And she hadn't realised – after all, she'd been too busy seeing her old friends and settling back into her old life.  
“Do you know something you're not telling me, girl?” Rose rested a hand against the wall. It would make sense, the lack of sushi and booze.   
The TARDIS hummed and she sighed. “I wish you could talk to me properly. Just my luck that humans aren't telepathic.” A light chime rang through the room, that sounded a lot like laughter.   
“Oh, come on, help me out,” she said and, instantly, a rectangular pink box appeared on the side of the counter.  
Five minutes later, she had drunk enough water to flood the TARDIS and she was pacing impatiently in front of the counter, a little red light flickering on the pregnancy test.

KNOCK KNOCK

The banging on the door startled Rose and she shouted.  
“Rose? Are you in there?”   
She wanted to send him away – she couldn't deal with his reaction right now. But he sounded vulnerable and sad.  
“Rose? Are you okay? Answer me or I'll sonic the door!”  
She almost threw herself at the door. She definitely didn't want him coming in and freaking out when he saw the test. “I'm fine, Doctor, coming!”  
Her heart almost broke when she saw him. His clothes were torn, his face was filthy with ash and there were streaks in the grey where he had been crying. His eyes was red but the rest of his face was as white as a sheet and he was shaking violently.   
“Oh, Doctor,” she gathered him in a hug and, as she felt her shoulder grow damp, ran her hands up and down his back. He hissed at one point and flinched away.   
“Doctor?”  
“My back stings,”  
She gently turned him round and lifted the shirt up and winced. Some of his shirt was stuck to the ugly red burn that covered a 3 inch span.   
“God, you've got a nasty burn!”  
“I thought something hit me on the back when I was running off,”  
“Can't you feel it?”  
“It aches but I think the shock's numbing it right now,” he said shakily. “How bad is it?”  
“You really don't wanna know. Come on, you need to cool it down or something, do you wanna go to the infirmary?”  
“I don't think I can walk that far to be honest,” he gave her a watery smile. “I'll just hop in the bath.”


	11. Chapter 11

“Rose?” he looked in the library.  
“Rose?” he looked in the kitchen.  
“Rose?” he looked in the observatory.  
“Rose?” he looked in her old bedroom.  
“Rose?” he looked in the wardrobe.  
“Rose?” he looked in the swimming pool.  
“Where is she?” he laid a hand against the coral strut and asked the TARDIS. He snatched his hand back as she hummed angrily and sent a light static shock through his arm.  
“I know I shouldn't have said it. It was the heat of the moment.”  
The TARDIS was silent.  
“Please?”  
She was still ignoring him.  
He opened his mind wider to her, allowing her to see all his feelings for Rose and the baby.  
She grudgingly lit her way down the corridor and towards the control room.   
“Don't mess me about, girl.”  
She chimed angrily and the Doctor heard a very small voice from under the grating. “It's okay, girl. I can't really avoid him forever.”

“Rose?”  
He noticed one of the panels on the floor was open and she was sitting on the floor, a large book open on her lap.   
“What are you reading?”  
She didn't answer him and he shifted slightly so he could see the pages, silently glad she hadn't flinched away.   
“That's Gallifreyan, Rose. The TARDIS won't translate it.”  
“I know, but it's pretty, ennit?”  
He just nodded, slightly choked. “Rose. I'm sorry, I didn't think before I spoke.”  
She didn't respond.  
“I know it couldn't be anyone elses. Who else's could it be?” he laughed gently, trying to make her giggle, but she just glared at him, her eyes shining.  
“What, so, that's the only reason it would be yours? Not because I love you?”  
“That's not what I mean.”  
“Take me home, Doctor.”  
His heart dropped. “This is your home, Rose. It has been since you were 19.”  
“Take me home. I refuse to say anything else until you take me home.”  
“And I refuse to take you home.”

She stood and brushed past him, laying a gentle hand on the TARDIS's central column. “Please, girl,” she whispered, but the Doctor still heard and he sent the telepathic equivalent of a shout to the TARDIS.  
But the lights started to flicker and the TARDIS started to wheeze. He knew he didn't have much time since they were already in London and there was no point trying to put the brakes on, so he scrambled out of the grating and grabbed Rose's arm.   
“Rose, you can't leave me. I need you.”  
“Like you needed me 'till you wanted someone to babysit the metacrisis. Like you needed me 'till someone better came along.”   
His brows furrowed in confusion and she explained, shouting now. “Reinette! Sarah Jane! And I crossed universes to be with you, I risked my life! And you chose to take me back where I was obviously trying to escape from and leave me with some rip off copy of you!”  
“I thought you loved him?”  
“I did, but he felt the same! We were tucked away in our corner, how handy for you!”  
“Rose, that's not how I felt. But he couldn't exactly stay with me, could he? Look what he did to Davros!”

KNOCK KNOCK

“Rose?” the Doctor's shoulders slumped as he heard Jackie's voice. She would always side with her daughter and she would always win over him.   
But he wasn't ready to give up so easily. “Rose, you can't. I love you.”  
“I loved you too, once. The time I spent without you in my life just made me long for you even more. I made the mistake of thinking it was the same for you, but lets be honest. You regenerated. You became a different man. You took that time and you moved on. Have a good life, Doctor.”  
Those words that he had spoken to her all those years ago were spat back at him and in the blink of an eye, she was gone.


	12. Chapter 12

He sat on her old bed and cried until he slept.  
When he woke up, he almost didn't recognise where he was until he felt the sad hum of the TARDIS inside his mind.   
And, for a week, he tried to occupy himself. He repaired the TARDIS, polished the console, explored rooms that he had forgotten.   
But, every afternoon, he ended up in the same place, sitting outside Rose's room which the TARDIS had locked after that first night.  
Every dusk, he would sit outside the TARDIS on a bench that faced Jackie's flat. He would tinker with his new inventions, hastily pocketing them when a stranger walked past. He would duck his head further when Jackie walked past to take Tony to nursery or go shopping. Whenever Pete went by on his way to work, the man would look away awkwardly. Rose never walked past him, but he could feel the heaviness of her stare from the fourth floor window.   
One evening, he saw Rose's curtains twitch and he looked up instinctively. He caught Rose's gaze and she immediately tugged the curtains shut, but not before his vision (that was much stronger than any humans) noticed the tears welling in her eyes.  
He trudged back to the TARDIS, his shoulders slumped. The console room was warmer than usual and the Doctor sent a mental wave of appreciation to the TARDIS, the warmth was her equivalent of a hug.   
He jumped, startled, when a loud noise rang through the room. It sounded like a key in a lock.   
“Oh, shh.”  
The TARDIS didn't say anything and he went over to one of the panels, looking for his brandy. He rarely drank, but he really needed something to numb his hearts and drown his sorrows right now.  
The click of a lock rang out through the room again.  
“Leave me alone,”  
Swigging some of the brandy, he clutched the bottle tightly and staggered slightly to Rose's room. He sat down on the floor and leant against it, startled when it swung open behind him and he fell to the floor. It dawned on him that the noise was the TARDIS telling him she had unlocked the room in his time of need.  
From his position on the floor, he could see the glow-in-the-dark stars that were stuck to the ceiling.   
“What?”  
He sat up suddenly and choked a bit.   
It all made sense.  
The TARDIS had locked the room because she was redesigning it.  
She had changed Rose's bedroom into a nursery.  
There were shades of white, sunset pink and TARDIS blue across the room.

And it dawned on the Doctor.   
He had made a mess of things and Rose had run before he could show her the test.  
Did she even know she was pregnant?  
Was that why she hadn't come back?


	13. Chapter 13

Rose hung over the toilet bowl with a damp flannel and a groan. Every morning she woke up at 10:36 and every morning she threw up at 10:37, giving her just enough time to sprint to the toilet. At least the baby had a good sense of time.  
She had tried talking to the baby to convince it that morning sickness really wasn't fun, thinking it might understand since it was obviously intelligent.  
Except she didn't call it a baby. She couldn't bear the idea that she was actually pregnant and since her (second) positive pregnancy test she had been trying to ignore the fact. 

It was lucky that when she got sick, Pete had gone to work and Jackie was at the nursery.   
She knew she was worrying Jackie by her lack of appetite, but she knew Jackie might figure out she was pregnant when she ate and threw it back up again. She had resorted to wearing her dressing gown around the flat to hide her slight weight gain. 

She had borrowed Pete's laptop.  
She had looked up abortion clinics, but her stomach turned and she feared what would happen, since she knew nothing about Gallifreyan biology.  
She looked up adoption homes, but she didn't know what traits the baby would get from the Doctor and whether a 21st century human would be able to cope.

And she didn't think she could sacrifice the one piece of the Doctor that she had left.


	14. Chapter 14

The Doctor woke up to the sound of a key again.  
“I get it, it's the nursery!” He slurred at the ceiling.  
“What nursery?” An awfully familiar voice rang out through the console room and he sat up suddenly, spilling brandy over the grating.  
“Jackie?!”  
“Hello.” she was turning the TARDIS key in her hands.  
“Where'd you get that?” he turned his alcohol receptors back on and glared at her hand.  
“I took it.”  
“Where from?”  
“Rose's night stand.”  
And that hurt the Doctor's hearts. Since their trip to New Earth, Rose had worn her TARDIS key on a silver chain around her neck, claiming she wanted it near her heart. The Doctor had scoffed at the sentimentality but was secretly touched. He had especially enjoyed seeing her wearing nothing but the key. The separation of it from Rose really felt like his last bond was broken.  
“What do you want Jackie?” his voice was somewhat choked.  
“I need you to come with me.”  
“You must be joking!”  
“It's Rose.”  
That made him look up from the console. “What's wrong with her?”  
“There's something up with her. She's always pale and tired and she's just... changed.”  
“How?”  
“She's not her lively, stubborn, kind self. She won't play with Tony, she won't see her friends, she won't go shopping, she won't look for a job, she won't even cry on my shoulder. She won't even eat.”  
“What?”  
“I said she won't play with - ”  
“No, I heard that bit! What was the last bit you said?”  
“She won't eat. She says she's not hungry and she's getting thin,”  
“I need to see her.”  
“That's what I've been saying, you numpty.” Jackie finished her sentence by speaking to thin air as the Doctor had sprinted from his ship. She followed him out at a more leisurely pace and pulled the door closed behind her. “Doctor! You might want this!” he skidded to a halt and she threw her house key and his TARDIS key at him.   
“Aren't you coming?”  
“Nah, I want to do a bit of shopping, you two can have some privacy,” she smirked and walked off quickly in the other direction.

The Doctor waited for the lift, his hearts in his mouth. He knew that Jackie was sharing the same thought and that's why she had given him the key. Rose might not let him in.  
Rose might not want to see him.


	15. Chapter 15

The Doctor opened the letterbox slightly and peered in. He could just make out the tune of Eastenders played. He closed the letterbox quietly and slipped the key in, wincing as it made the tiniest amount of noise that was only audible to a Time Lord.  
As usual, Rose had the volume up high, a reason for the Doctor to tease her about her hearing capabilities. At this moment, the Doctor was relieved because it gave him a chance to walk in quietly, else he feared she would throw something at him or shove him out the door.  
“Rose,”  
Rose whipped round, nearly falling off the sofa. The Doctor was standing in the doorway, his hands in his pockets.  
“Doctor?” she sounded so vunerable and small for a moment that he wanted to hug her tight and never let go. Then she snapped. “What the hell are you doing here?!”  
She leapt up from the sofa, clutching the remote like a sword.   
The Doctor winced.   
At two months, she should be glowing, she should look pudgier than normal. Now, her hair and skin were dull and she was skinnier than he had ever seen her. The light blonde highlights in her hair were fading and her eyes were smudged with old mascara. Her bright, cute outfits were replaced with bunny pyjamas and a grubby dressing gown.  
“Why do you think I'm here, Rose? Look at yourself!”  
“Right, so you've come to insult me.”  
“I don't mean to be insulting, Rose. But you're not yourself. And, frankly, you look ill, not pregnant.”  
Rose ducked her head at his mention of the baby, but he didn't miss the watery shine to her eyes. His hearts leapt into his mouth.  
“Tell me you're still pregnant.”  
She was silent.  
“You didn't lose it?” he sagged against the doorway, letting the tears start to fall as she just looked at him. Then, ever so slightly, she shook her head and rested a hand lightly on her belly.  
“He's fine.”  
“He?”  
“I don't know yet, but I've just got a feeling.”  
The Doctor nodded understandingly and extended an arm. He locked eyes with her and she could immediately see the regret. Without even realising she was doing it, she took his hand and pulled up her top.   
He gave a small murmur as his hand made contact with her stomach, that was flat, but firmer than usual. As his hand made contact with the haven of their child, she sank back on to the sofa slowly and pulled at the sleeve of his coat until he joined her.   
“Rose, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't think and what I said was horrific.”  
“Yeah, it was. But it's not unforgivable.”  
“You're forgiving me?”  
“I don't know yet.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“This isn't going to be a normal pregnancy or a normal baby, Doctor. I'm a human, I don't know anything about the Time Lords. I need your help. And this isn't my home any more.”  
“Your home is with me,”  
“The TARDIS is my home. You're my best friend. And this baby needs a daddy.”  
“Best friend?”  
“I love you, Doctor, but I can't have my heart broken again.”  
“I didn't change. I never forgot you. Do you know, I couldn't even say your name after Canary Wharf? Everywhere I looked, I saw you! I was so unfair to Martha, just because I missed you so much!”  
“And after you changed?”  
“I'll admit, I tried to push you to the corner of my mind because it hurt so much. But it didn't work. I never forgot you, Rose.”  
“But you tried. How do I know that won't happen again?”  
“Because I promise. Time Lord's honour.”  
“I can't trust you with my heart and my baby's heart just yet. Give me time.”  
“We've got forever.”


	16. Chapter 16

“So you'll come back with me?”  
“Once my mum's back, I need to explain,”  
“She's the one who encouraged me to come up here,”  
“Can't keep her nose out of anything!” laughed Rose and the Doctor chuckled alongside her.  
“But, yeah, let's wait,” he agreed. He was in debt to Jackie and he didn't want to hurt her again.  
“Mum gave me a bit of old baby stuff, it's in my room, I'll just go get it.” Rose stood and the dressing gown fell off her slim frame. The Doctor sighed quietly at how skinny she was.   
“Let me cook something for you while we wait?” he offered. He was glad to see she looked happier and brighter now they had talked, but she was risking her health and the baby's.  
“I'm not hungry.” Despite her words, her stomach interrupted by rumbling loudly and she laughed, embarrassed. “I probably won't keep it down, but it would be nice.”  
“How about a cheese and pickle sandwich?”  
“Nah,”  
“Pancakes?”  
She turned pale and shook her head. “Nah,”  
“Fruit?”  
“Hmm. Maybe?”

Five minutes later, the Doctor had finished searching Jackie's kitchen. To his delight, he found strawberries, bananas, blueberries, grapes and kiwi. Whilst rummaging in the fruit bowl, he found a few pears and wrinkled his nose, throwing them in the sink.   
He cut them all up and threw them in a big white bowl and carried it back to the sitting room.   
Where Rose wasn't.  
“Roseee?!”  
“In my room!”  
He set the fruit down on the coffee table, similar to the one that he had broken so long ago. He followed her voice to her bedroom and smiled mildly at the fact that Jackie had decorated it the same way it had been decorated in the Powell Estate with the purple walls and the red bed. 

She was folding up onesies and putting them into a suitcase. The Doctor silently moved to her side and copied her actions.  
“So these were yours?”  
“Long time ago, yeah.”  
“Your version of a long time is very different to mine,” laughed the Doctor.   
Rose chuckled ever so slightly and it was like music to his ears.  
“It'll be nice to dress the baby in these. Bit of a family heirloom, eh?”  
“I suppose so, yeah.”  
“Rose, what's wrong?”  
“The 'long time' thing. What's this baby gonna be like? I know I've got an extended lifespan and you can obviously regenerate, but I'm primarily a human. I don't think I can watch this baby age and die before me.”  
“Neither can I. Hopefully we won't need to and the baby gets a long lifespan too, but we'll sort something out.”  
“Can we check while I'm still pregnant? You know, this early on.”  
“I've never had the need to do anything like this before, but I expect the TARDIS can scan and check.”  
“Can we go now?”  
The Doctor just nodded and gestured for her to lead the way out of the flat. She put the onesie she was clutching down on the bed and left.  
The Doctor followed a split second behind her, but not before he grinned at the onesie. It was white and written on the front was “Daddy's Little Monster.”


	17. Chapter 17

“It won't hurt?”  
“No, Rose. The TARDIS would never hurt you.”  
“Hold my hand anyway?”  
“Sure,” Despite his casual demeanour, his hearts started beating faster and he was glad that Time Lords didn't sweat, as he slipped his hand into hers.  
His other hand was tapping away at the screen.  
“There we go!”  
“What does it say?”  
“Nothing yet,” he laughed. “We need to scan the actual baby,” he picked up something that looked like a futuristic ultrasound wand.   
“Nope.”  
“It won't hurt, Rose, I promise.”  
“I don't care, it can't be good for the baby.”  
“It won't do anything to the baby, I promise. It's just like an ultrasound in an Earth hospital. They wouldn't do so many of them unless it was safe for babies.”  
“Fine.”  
She was, in fact, scared about seeing her child for the first time, but she didn't want to admit it to the Doctor in case it scared him off again.  
The ultrasound gel was cold against her stomach and she flinched. The Doctor tried to tell himself she was flinching because of the gel, nothing to do with him.  
The screen turned black and started to flicker until the Doctor tapped at the screen insistently. The TARDIS hummed stubbornly and showed a very gritty image.  
“Molto bene, Rose!”  
“What?”  
“Baby's lying on its side so we can get a clearer picture!” he turned to her stomach, moving his face close enough so it wasn't quite touching. “Aren't you daddy's clever little bean?”  
Rose's heart swelled and she squeezed his hand tighter, her eyes shining. “Show me?”  
“That's the head, that's the arms, that's the legs,” he pointed out each bit.  
“She's growing normally?”  
“She?”  
“Oh, I don't know. It's just a feeling.”  
The Doctor took a deep breath so his voice wouldn't shake. “Yeah, she's growing normally. At 8 weeks she's forming webbed fingers and webbed toes and eyelids. She's already got her skeleton and a nervous system and a brain and a digestive system.”  
“Webbed?!”  
“It's perfectly normal, it'll be gone by week 11,”  
“What about her heart?”  
“Yeah, she formed those a while back,”  
“I mean, how many does she have?”  
The Doctor leaned in closer to the screen and slipped his glasses on. When she was sure he was engrossed in the screen, Rose slightly rubbed her thighs together. She had always loved those glasses.   
“She's got lungs rather than pulmonary tubes,”  
“What are pulmunny tubes?”  
“Pulmonary. They're the Gallifreyan equivalent to lungs, they're smaller and more robust and they make us buoyant.”  
“Okay, so that bit is human.”  
His lips quirked up. “Two hearts, though.”  
Rose laughed happily. “We won't outlive her?!”  
“No!” The Doctor scooped her off the bed and swung her round without even realising what he was doing. He eventually set her down and she gripped on to his shoulders breathlessly.   
His cheeks were flushed, his hair mussed and the glasses crooked. With that delicious sight and the cocktail of hormones rushing through her, she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him.


	18. Chapter 18

She looked even more beautiful than usual, her hair thicker, her chest obviously bigger as it heaved with heavy breathes, her stomach flat and firm with their growing child.  
And so he kissed her back.

They broke apart and gasped for breath, Rose leaning against his chest and drawing patterns against his chest. He looked down at her and finally noticed how vulnerable she looked.  
“Rose, we can't do this.”  
“What?”  
“You don't want this. Not really.”  
“I do!”  
“It's the pregnancy hormones. You said to give you time.”  
“You don't want me.”  
“Rose, of course I do!”  
She didn't answer and sat back down on the medical bed, facing away from him.  
“Rose?”  
She ignored him again.  
He began to pace up and down the room.  
“Will you stop that?!”  
“Then talk to me!”  
“Not while you're angry, Rose. Let's talk about something else.”  
“Fine. Go on then.”  
The Doctor racked his brain for a moment and then his gaze rested back on the screen.

“There's a few biological differences.”  
“What?”  
“The baby.”  
“Oh, okay. What differences?”  
“It's going to be more difficult to give birth. Her head will be bigger, since a Gallifreyan brain is bigger than that of a humans.”  
“Great(!)”  
“It's green too.”  
“The baby?!”  
“The brain.”  
“My mum was right. Anything else?”  
“She'll be more resilient. I don't break bones or get hypothermia or die from low levels of radiation. You won't like this, but she won't sleep much, I only take an hour a day. We have better taste, smell and sight.”  
“The taste thing explains a lot,” giggled Rose, refusing to meet the Doctor's gaze so she didn't receive a stern look.  
She eventually looked up and saw him blushing, his eyes flickering everywhere except her. The impact of her words suddenly dawned on her. “Oh god, I didn't mean that!”  
“Oh, okay, yeah, I knew, course,” he tried to make excuses, fiddling with the screen again until it turned off. 

“Tea?” she tried to break the awkward atmosphere.  
“Before you go, there's something I haven't told you, Rose. I don't want to say it, but it's important.”  
“There's more?”  
“I've told you about Pythia putting the curse on us?”  
“Yeah, you said it made Gallifreyans infertile. Actually, how did this happen?” she gestured to her midriff.  
“We're a telepathic race and I was estranged from Gallifrey at the time,”  
“Oh, okay. Anyway, carry on,”  
“We say we're sterile, but we can actually conceive. But the babies are never born since all mothers miscarriage within 2 weeks.”  
“What?!”  
“Obviously, it's been more than 2 weeks, but I should warn you, you're more at risk.”


	19. Chapter 19

“I won't.”  
“It's not that simple, Rose.”  
“You're talking like you expect it to happen!”  
“I'm preparing myself for the worst. I never knew whether the curse was placed on Gallifreyan women or Gallifreyan fetuses.”  
“I don't care either way. This baby is gonna be fine.”  
“I can't guarantee that, Rose.”  
“What can I do to stop it then?”  
“It won't necessarily prevent it altogether, but there are things that you need to be aware of.”  
“For example?”  
“Time Lords can't have ginger or aspirin. I haven't risked it since but I used to be allergic to Praxis gas in my fifth incarnation.”  
“Right, I don't think Praxis gas is gonna do me any harm seeing how I don't even know what it is.” Rose held up a hand to stop the Doctor from interrupting so he could explain. “And aspirin doesn't agree with me anyway. Anything else?”  
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly and Rose waited patiently.  
“Well, um, at this point in the gestation, the baby will have developed their, um, telepathic receptors.”  
“I'm not telepathic though.”  
“Correct. But I am.”  
“So you could talk to the baby?”  
“I could communicate, yes.”  
“Do you need to do anything to me?”  
“No, I just need to know when she moves the most?”  
“I haven't felt any kicking yet.”  
“No, but that feeling of butterflies inside you. When does that happen?”  
“Oh, when I'm in bed usually.”  
“I'd need to sleep with you then to communicate with her.”  
Rose's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “What?!”  
“Not in that way! Just being near you while you're sleeping should calm her down. It'll help her feel less lonely and it'll help you sleep better. No offence, Rose, but you look like you could really do with some more sleep.”  
Rose didn't take offence because she knew he was just being truthful. Every morning, she would be yawning, every step felt heavy, every glance in the mirror looked exhausted. “Okay, when do you wanna start this then?”  
“Soon as you're comfortable doing so.”  
“Well, getting some more sleep would be nice. Are you busy tonight?” she joked.  
“Nope! It's a date,” he winked at her and she hid her blush by hopping off the bed.


	20. Chapter 20

“So how do you want to do this?”  
“I just need to be touching you, so I could sit in this chair?” he pointed at a scruffy old armchair. After returning to this universe, Rose had wondered what had happened to their old flat, so the Doctor took her back 3 years and let her gather her stuff up. The armchair had been one of her comfiest and most beloved possessions so she had hauled it into the TARDIS.  
“It's not very comfy to sleep in. Believe me, I fell asleep in it a lot and always woke up with a stiff back.”  
“Like I said earlier Rose, I only take an hour a day. When I'm especially tired, I take a few more hours, but that's it.”  
The Doctor and Rose were hovering in the doorway of Rose's bedroom, neither comfortable enough to fling themselves down on the bed in front of the other yet, in case it awoke old memories of what that bed had been used for once upon a time.   
“Okay, it's up to you I guess,”

Rose took a hesitant step towards her chest of drawers and the Doctor leapt out the way, almost stumbling in his desperation not to invade her personal space. Privately, he felt weird enough about being in her bedroom. He suddenly realised he was staring at her intently when she coughed and her drawer squeaked open.  
“Um, yes, I'll let you get, um, undressed,” and with that, he fled.  
Rose sighed, shaking her head fondly and ruffling through her drawer to find the most conservative pyjamas she owned. Since she had come back from Pete's World and started sleeping with the Doctor, she hadn't worn very modest pyjamas. She had very few clothes on the TARDIS since she had taken them all back to her mothers flat, so she was relying on the ship to provide her with some.  
She eventually settled on a red flannel shirt that reached her knees and a pair of stretchy burgundy shorts.   
She rinsed her face, brushed her teeth with her Echid toothpaste (a plant from Mars that made her breath smell even better than mints did) and tied her hair back in a messy ponytail.   
She felt ridiculous being shy around the Doctor, but her internal scolding didn't mute the feelings, so she threw a pillow and blanket on to the chair and buried herself under the duvet.  
And waited.

She tried not to stare when he came back in, wearing blue checked pyjama trousers. His face was flushed from the cold water that he had splashed on his face.  
“You haven't showered.”  
He just blinked at her before laughing and smelling himself. “Do I really smell that bad?”  
Rose giggled alongside him. “Nah, your hair. It's still got all the gel in.”  
“I didn't want to keep you waiting in case you were tired.”  
“S'okay. You'll be uncomfortable without washing all that gel out. You can use my ensuite?”  
The Doctor just mumbled his thanks and disappeared inside the pink ensuite, closing the door tightly behind him.  
As she heard the water turn on and a shampoo bottle clatter to the floor, Rose tried not to think about him in the shower.  
His bare chest that had looked so good when he walked in, toned and tanned.  
The mist from the shower steaming up the room.  
Running the soap over his naked body.  
His blue check trousers crumpled in the corner of the room.  
Thrusting into her as she clung onto the tiled wall, mewling his name -   
No.  
Rose shut her eyes tightly, trying to ignore the throbbing between her thighs. That was the last thing she needed while he held her hand and watched her sleep.


	21. Chapter 21

Rose slept fitfully and the Doctor looked down on her worriedly every time she turned. He had to grip her hand tightly enough so he could keep it in his grasp without waking her up.   
Her hair was messy, her mouth slack, one arm thrown over on to the other side of the bed and one resting across her belly. Her hand twitched at each movement with the baby and the Doctor noticed what she had meant when she said the baby was restless at night.  
He tried sending out telepathic waves to soothe the baby and to tell her to quiet down, but he received no response. Eventually, he knotted their fingers firmly together and let himself fall into the call of sleep. 

Rose jolted awake, facing the Doctor. He looked as peaceful as ever while he slept, his head resting on one shoulder, one hand holding hers and the other laying on the arm of the chair.   
Her train of thought was stopped by what had woken her up in the first place. A sharp bolt of pain in her midriff.  
She cried out quietly, grabbing at her stomach.   
Battling against the pain, she sat up silently and slid her hand further down. And stopped when she felt the familiarity of warm, sticky blood.   
Tears started slipping down her face and she looked over at her ensuite door desperately. It wouldn't do to wake the Doctor up, he would be distraught at watching the inevitable happen.  
But as she went to stand on shaky legs, the pain sharpened again and she curled into herself, accidentally yanking on his hand.  
“Rose?” he said sleepily, stretching his arms out. “Rose?!” the drowiness was replaced with urgency as he leapt up from the chair. He didn't need to ask what was happening, since he could see the red stains on her bare legs even in the dark.  
He scooped her up in his arms, sending a mental plea to the TARDIS and thanking her gratefully when he saw that the infirmary had been moved opposite her bedroom. 

“Rose, can you hear me?”  
“I'm fine, Doctor. It's the baby. I'm so sorry!” she grabbed him and sobbed into the shirt that he had slipped on when he had got chilly in the night. He slid out of it, leaving it with her so she could use it as a handkerchief. She mumbled something into it between sobs that he couldn't decipher whilst he was whacking at the computer screen. Only when it finally flickered to life and he brandished the ultrasound wand that he asked her what she had said.  
“It's all my fault!” she hiccuped, throwing the sodden mess of a shirt aside.  
“How, Rose?” he tried to keep calm for her but he could feel his hearts, that had only just started to mend, breaking all over again.  
“The ginger!”  
“What do you mean?”  
“You said Time Lords couldn't have ginger,”  
“I did say that,”  
“And I had ginger! It was only one mug of ginger tea, I read it was meant to soothe morning sickness but it was disgusting so I threw it away and I thought it was so little that it wouldn't matter so I didn't say anything!” she finished babbling and drew in a ragged breath.   
The Doctor set down the ultrasound equipment and quietly walked over, cradling her head and stroking her hair.   
“Rose, I need you to calm down. Your blood pressure is through the roof.”  
“I'm sorry,” she cried.  
Tears sprung to his eyes and he buried his face in her golden locks, trying to soothe himself with the familiar scent. “It's okay. It might not even be what we think it is.”  
Not to his own knowledge, Rose realised he was crying when she felt the damp spot seep through her hair. She took a deep breath and gave him a watery smile. “Get on with it then spaceman,”  
He smiled back at her and flew to the controls.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this chapter today instead of tomorrow because I understand that the cliffhanger of Chapter 21 is quite a delicate subject.

“So the baby's okay?”  
“She's brilliant.”  
“And I was bleeding from my cervix?”  
“Because of your cervix, yes.”  
“I still don't really get it.”  
“Do you want me to explain?”  
“Go on then.”  
“It's what caused the pain and bleeding doesn't always accompany it, but because you have such a narrow frame and you're still so skinny, that's what happened.”  
The Doctor did a quick outline with his hands in the air of Rose's hourglass figure, accentuating the narrowness of her hips. He got a dreamy look in his eyes until Rose coughed to bring his attention back and he blushed. She just tried to hold back a laugh.  
“So it's moved?”  
“It's softer, it's higher up and there's more blood flow. Do you wanna see?” he rested one hand on the screen that was turned away from her.   
Earlier, when they'd not known what was happening, he had encouraged her to look at the screen and she kicked it away from the bed until he grabbed her foot and explained that the baby was fine.  
“Nah, I won't make sense of it.”  
“Okay.”  
“And the baby, there's no trauma or anything like that?”  
He gave her a slightly amused look. “Trust you with your big heart to think of that. She's still a fetus Rose, she won't remember this. She may have turned over a bit when I picked you up but it wouldn't have hurt her, no. Anyway, the presence of my mind would have assured her that she was okay.”  
“I like it when you call her a girl,”  
“I'm taking your word for it. Maternal instinct after all.”


	23. Chapter 23

“I told you I didn't want you getting out of bed.”  
“You told me the baby was okay,”  
“Yes, but you're in a fragile state right now.”  
“I can feel when the TARDIS lands. Don't you dare go adventuring off without me.” Rose pointed one hand at the Doctor, the other rested on her stomach, where a slight bump had appeared. The Doctor had been giving her as much food as she could take so she'd build herself up again. She had protested that he was making her fat, but he just calmly explained that she was cooking a growing child.  
“I wasn't, I swear. I was gonna come and get you but you shouldn't be up and about until your Doctor says.”  
“Don't try that. You have a PhD in cheesemaking, not medicine.”  
“I might not have a degree, but I promise you Rose, I'm perfectly qualified to look after you through this pregnancy,” his banterous tone ceased and he stared at her.  
“I know you are,” she rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Where are we anyway?”  
“The planet Albion. It's a tiny planet with absolutely no history of violence. It's an ocean planet with a single island that's about the same size as Germany. The ocean is teeming with different species but the island only has one species who are fairly similar to the human race. The beach is gorgeous and the sand is actually white. Oh, and it's a Tuesday.”  
“We're here to sunbathe?”  
“No, it's a shopping planet!”  
“Oh my god, that's brilliant!” she squealed.  
“I thought you'd be pleased,” he beamed.

“I thought you said they were similar to humans?” she hissed, standing on tiptoe so she could whisper in the Doctor's ear.  
“They are!”  
“They have gills! And fins! And they're blue!”  
“Rose, the world is an ocean. Most of them live underwater and come up to swim. They need to breathe water and they need to blend into their surroundings.”  
“How are they similar to me then?”  
“They have lungs too so they can breathe on the island. And they're of about the same intelligence level.”  
“Every human has different intelligence.”  
“The Time Lord average IQ in your terms is about 400. But you are right, to some extent, there are particular humans who stand out. Albert Einstein, there was a nice chap.” They were walking down a cobbled street, hands clasped and swinging between them as the Doctor rambled. “Another exceptional human? Rose Tyler.”  
Rose nearly fell over and only caught herself from stumbling with the Doctor's hand. “Ha! I'm not exceptional!”  
“You swung over a dangerous fiery alien to rescue an alien stranger after not even knowing aliens existed ten minutes ago!”  
“You said “aliens” too much, there. And you weren't a stranger, I loved you from “run.””  
This time, she did stumble slightly as the Doctor stopped suddenly, his eyes the size of dinner plates.  
“What's wrong?” she prodded his arm.  
“You love me?”  
“I said I did a long time ago. Sure, we had a fight, but I can't just switch that off.”  
The Doctor just beamed at her. He had an overwhelming urge to scoop her up in her arms and snog her silly, but he knew she wasn't ready yet, so he walked a little faster, explaining about the local delicacies.  
Rose smiled back. She had an overwhelming urge to lean up on her tiptoes and kiss that smile off his face. But then he shot off, nearly dragging her along as he babbled about a nearby cafe.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while!

“I appreciate the thought and all, but is there a point to this shopping trip? You hate shopping!”  
“I'll have you know, in my eleventh incarnation, I loved shops.”  
“You haven't answered the question,”  
“Well, there's a lovely canal that runs through the island and this planet has some pretty good replicas of your Earth gondolas. And there's the beach. And there's a maternity store.”  
“A maternity store?”  
“Well, she's really starting to show now and I thought you might appreciate some comfier clothes.”  
Rose had in fact been complaining that none of her favourite shirts fitted any more, since a lot of them were deliberately tight already. She had been walking around in baggy shirts, oversized jumpers and elasticated trousers, regretting that she couldn't see Baby.

“How about these?” the Doctor called from the other side of the store, holding up a pair of harem pants with a banana print. Rose shook her head and pointed at the pair of white jeans that she had found.  
She continued to browse through the jeans and shirts, when the Doctor bounded over. She sighed, expecting him to be holding a trench coat or something with pinstripes. Instead, she was surprised that he had found something so nice.  
It was a tight, pale pink midi dress with gold seams that looked amazingly comfortable.  
“'Cause you're pink and yellow!”  
She smiled fondly at the memory of New Earth and put the dress in the basket.  
“Right, so, most of these are elasticated so you'll be able to wear them for a few weeks, maybe even months, before they get too tight.”  
Rose just nodded dimly at the assistant, still not able to get over the fact that she had pierced her gills.  
“And you, sir, there's not really much room in the changing room for you to sit with your wife, so we have a seating area,”  
Neither Rose nor the Doctor protested to being labelled as a married couple.  
Rose went into the changing room, not bothering with the lock that looked far too complicated and hung up her wide selection of clothes. She winced at the tacky looking aquatic theme on the walls. Smiling, she picked out and slipped on the one item that the Doctor had found for her and stood to look properly in the mirror.  
It was gorgeous.  
Her stomach was slightly padded. The spaghetti straps and V neckline accentuated her growing chest. Her hair looked thicker and glossier beside the gold highlights of the dress and her legs looked longer, slimmer. She hesitantly turned sideways and gasped quietly, covering her mouth with one hand. She had looked at Baby in the mirror of course, every time she got dressed, but showing her off to the world in maternity clothes was something else entirely.  
A soft knock at the door startled her back to reality.  
“Are you okay? A lot of people find it quite overwhelming trying it on for the first time,” said the sales assistant.  
Rose didn't make a sound.  
“I don't want to intrude, but I'll just get your husband,” and she scurried off. At the sound of retreating footsteps, Rose moved her hand from her hip to just below her naval and stroked gently.  
“Rose? Rose, are you okay?”  
She heard the Doctor tell the assistant that he could take it from here and she saw the door opening in the mirror. The slight panic on his face softened when he saw her just gazing at the mirror.  
“Oh, Rose. You're gorgeous.”  
He moved behind her, wrapping his arms around her and resting his hands above hers, his long fingers drawing invisible, intricate circles. He had taken his jacket and trench coat off when the store had got too hot for him and she could feel his hearts beating fast through the thin white fabric of his shirt. She leant back into the warmth of his embrace and he relaxed his knees just enough so he could rest his head on her shoulder and look at her in the mirror.  
After a moment of looking at each other in the mirror, occasionally murmuring quietly, Rose locked eyes with him purposefully and angled her head to one side ever so slightly.  
He seemed to get the hint immediately and he slowly turned his head, licking at her neck like she was some forbidden treat.  
Rose moaned. The assistant coughed. The Doctor froze.  
“Quiet,” he whispered into her ear before latching back on.  
He sucked and nipped and licked, his hand having moved up to massage her breast.  
Just as she was about to spin round in his arms and put his mouth to better use, they were interrupted.  
“Everything okay in there? You're very quiet!” called the assistant.  
The Doctor groaned quietly, raising his eyebrows at Rose and called back, “yep, coming now!”  
Rose giggled at the pun and he gave her a stern look.

“That was exciting!” she nearly fell into him, she was giggling so much when they left the shop.  
“That was risky,”  
Her playful demeanour dropped. “You regret it?”  
“No! No, no, no! I'm suggesting we do something a little more private?”  
“Where? The TARDIS is a long walk away!”  
“Didn't I promise you a boat ride, Miss Tyler?” he scooped her up into his arms and marched towards the sound of running water.  
When they were within sight of the gondolas, he set her down delicately on her feet so he could whip out the psychic paper.  
“What's that for this time?”  
“Didn't I say private? You wait here!” he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye and hurried off to a man standing on the bridge.  
So Rose sat on a bench by the water and watched the Doctor, until the warmth of two suns caught up with her and the adrenaline of the changing room wore off and she dozed.  
She was awoken by something poking her in the knee and she sat up, batting it away. The Doctor laughed, already in a boat on the water, holding his oar aloft.  
The gondola was beautiful. As the Doctor had promised, it was very similar to those on Earth, but it was deeper and it had detailed alien carvings painted along the outside edge. One side was stacked with fluffy blankets and the other side had a picnic basket lodged securely in.  
“Are you my own personal gondolier?” she asked as the Doctor helped her clamber in.  
“I thought we could just row to a quiet spot,”  
“Then what were you thinking we could do?” she said cheekily.  
“Just you wait and see,” and with one broad stroke through the water, Rose squealed and clung on to the edge as they glided through the water.  
After about twenty minutes of slowly rowing around, they found a little hollow under a bridge. The Doctor pulled the boat into it and steadied them by grabbing hold of the wall, grimacing at the fungi looking substance.  
“Now, where were we?” he growled, wiping his hand hastily and prowling over to her.  
She giggled, lying down on top of the pile of blankets and grabbing his tie, pulling him over to her so he was kneeling between his legs.  
He captured her mouth in another kiss and by the time they pulled apart so Rose could breathe, they were both panting. He situated one leg between hers, grabbing on to the edge of the boat to steady himself.  
And abruptly capsized them.


	25. Chapter 25

“Are you sure you didn't swallow any water?” he held the TARDIS door open, his shirt stuck to his chest.  
“I don't think it would matter anyway,” she entered first, rubbing her hair with a blanket that one of the locals had given them.   
Almost as soon as the boat had flipped, Rose had bobbed back up, still experienced from her swimming lessons as a child. The Doctor had been batting at the boat, stuck underneath it, until she had yanked him up by his collar and he had emerged, spluttering.   
She had almost gone back under in her giggles, so he grabbed her to his chest and did a few broad strokes to the bank, where a concerned local had fished them out and given them his picnic blanket.   
“It's not healthy,”  
“And all those chips are?” she gave her classic Rose Tyler smile, her tongue poking between his teeth. He couldn't help but grin back before advancing on her, ready to take that mouth with his own.  
“No, no, no. That water stank, we're getting showers first,”  
“Together?”  
“Not very romantic when I'm covered in water goo.”

Rose stood in the shower cubicle in her ensuite. The TARDIS had got rid of her bathtub since she was advised not to have long hot baths. Rose appreciated the thought but she really missed her jacuzzi jets and she was sure the Doctor did to.   
She sighed, placing one hand on her aching back and reaching for the silphium shower gel, a plant that was now extinct on Earth and the Doctor reluctantly took her to 6th century BC every month so she could restock at her favourite Ancient Roman market.  
Once she had washed the dirt from the water off and the weird blue aqueous plants from her hair, she shut her eyes and let the water pound against her stiff shoulders, not protesting when the TARDIS turned a fan on to stop the room getting too steamy. Her mind drifted back to just before the boat had turned and her hand drifted down from her swollen belly. She smiled at the memory of the Doctor clambering on top of her, his erection nudging her thigh and moaned as her thumb brushed her clit.

And then one strong hand lay across hers.   
She snapped her eyes open, looking up at the Doctor. His eyes were fixed on her, pupils blown wide. He stood in a TARDIS blue dressing gown, the material soaking under the shower.  
“What are you doing in this?” she murmured, moving her hand to tug at the robe.  
“I wasn't going to get in, you were just taking a while so I thought I'd check on you, but you looked like you started by yourself?” he said huskily.  
“This'll never get undone now,” she fiddled with the knot in the robe.  
“Oh, who cares,”  
“Not me,” and she ducked to the floor of the shower, silently thanking the TARDIS for giving her a big cubicle as she slipped under the robe.  
“Rose, that can't be comfortable, OH!” he gasped as her mouth engulfed his swollen cock, her hand pumping at the base rhythmically.   
He gripped the edge of the shower shelf, ignoring the bottles that clattered to the floor as he focused on trying not to thrust into her mouth. He'd already been painfully close when he caught her wanking alone and he really wasn't going to last long.  
She felt his balls tighten as his orgasm approached and she slid one hand up his thigh to the base of his cock, pumping in rhythm to her mouth.   
He grunted, his hand moving shakily to tangle into her hair.  
And lost control when Rose swallowed around him.   
He came with a muffled shout, one hand tightening in her hair and his free hand scrabbling for purchase. She sucked him through his orgasm, swallowing down his uniquely salty warm flavour. 

Once he had stopped shuddering, he sank down to the floor of the shower with her.   
“I don't know why this is so comfortable,” she laughed.  
“The TARDIS, probably,” he said in a squeaky, broken voice, then coughed, embarrassed. “Rose, I'm sorry. I should be the one looking after you in your condition,”  
“I'm pregnant, not ill, Doctor,” she laughed. “Anyway, it didn't exactly leave me unsatisfied. Just watching you makes me come.”  
Just that simple sentence made him shiver slightly as a pang of arousal hit his cock. He jumped to his feet, scooping her up in his arms and walking backwards into her bedroom, still sopping wet as she giggled and squealed.


	26. Chapter 26

“No. Go away.”  
“Rose, I'm not going anywhere. This is just your hormones.”  
He paled under her glare.  
“The hormones are your fault. Go away.”  
“I'm not going anywhere until you eat something. So, that's a no to chips or cake?” he ticked them off on his hand.  
“Just the sound of them makes me feel ill,”  
“Sorry. At least drink something?”  
“Maybe,”  
“Thank you! What do you want?”  
“Tea,”  
“Coming right up! Decaf, of course,”  
“No, Doctor. I want my mum's tea.”  
The Doctor paled even further at that. He had whisked Rose off again before she'd even told Jackie she was pregnant and he had the most horrible feeling that Jackie would blame him for that. It was pretty hard to hide now, her bump straining against every maternity shirt.   
“But she'll slap me,” he frowned, rubbing his cheek.  
“I won't let her. Look, I'll get my baggiest jumper so it's not very noticeable,”

Rose knocked on her mum's door and rattled the letterbox, tapping her foot impatiently. The Doctor, on the other hand, was desperately hoping that Jackie wasn't home. He had even tried to convince Rose to just leave a note after Jackie didn't come to the door straight away, which earnt him a steely look.  
“Rosie!” the door was flung open and Tony flung himself around Rose's legs.  
“Tony? What are you doing at home?”  
“It's a Saturday, I don't go to nursery and Daddy doesn't go to work. Silly Rosie,” he looked at the Doctor and laughed in the way that only children can.   
“Rose, is that you?” called Jackie from somewhere in the flat.  
“Yeah, it's me and the Doctor, mum. Where are you?” she called back, pulling Tony up into her arms. She grunted slightly when he accidentally kicked her in the stomach and the Doctor practically snatched him from her.   
“Sorry I didn't answer the door myself, love,” Jackie came out of her bedroom in a pink dressing gown, gesturing at the wet towel on her head in a way of explanation. “Tea?” She didn't even wait for an answer and headed for the kitchen.  
“Sure. Can you make it decaf?”  
Jackie stopped so abruptly that Rose nearly crashed into her. The Doctor wasn't so graceful and had to grab Rose's arm to stop falling over.  
“You're pregnant.” It wasn't a question and the Doctor hovered anxiously at Rose's elbow, not recognising the unusual quiet tone.  
Rose bit her lip and the Doctor felt her sigh. “Yeah, I am.”   
“What does pregnt mean?” Tony piped up from where he was playing with a toy car.  
“You're going to be an uncle,” the Doctor beamed at Tony at the same time that Jackie said “don't worry sweetheart,”  
Jackie looked at him sternly then beckoned them both into the kitchen, slamming the door behind them.  
“Take off that jumper. It's the middle of summer and there's no point hiding it anymore,” her eyes widened when the bump was visible. “How far along are you? It's been half a year for me!”  
“I was already 2 months gone when I moved back. It's been 4 months for us. Sorry, somebody clearly can't steer,”   
“So you let her get knocked up by some random alien?” she spat the last word at the Doctor and he winced.  
“No, mum!”   
“You stay out of this, Rose.”  
“No I won't, I'm 24 years old and this is my child! The baby is not the result of a one night stand! And it's no randomer, you've known him 5 years!”  
The Doctor could see the wheels turning and Jackie finally fixed her gaze on him. “You?!”  
“Yes, Jackie.” The Doctor slipped his hand into Rose's.  
“So that's why she moved back in?” she held a finger up when he opened his mouth. “That's why you're back now? You never liked domestics! Running away from your mistakes?!”  
The Doctor drew himself to his full height. “We came back because Rose wanted to share the good news. And I'd appreciate you not labelling my child and my fiancée as a mistake.”  
“Fiancée?” Jackie spluttered.  
“Yes.”   
Rose barely felt the cold metal of a ring slipping on to her hand before he swiftly held it out for Jackie to see.   
“Oh, it's gorgeous! I'm sorry, Rose, I am happy for you, truly!” she enveloped Rose in a hug before reaching for the Doctor and giving him a big wet kiss on the cheek. 

Rose patiently sat with Jackie, who practically smothered her with gossip, whilst the Doctor flicked through the books on the shelf, declaring them “boring” or “obvious.”  
Eventually, Jackie realised their tea had gone cold and bustled off to brew another pot and in a split second, the Doctor was beside Rose on the couch, taking her hands into his own.   
“So she's not cross?”  
“No, not now she thinks we're engaged,” she laughed quietly, a twinkle in her eye. “So was that technically a proposal in front of my mum?”  
The Doctor paled slightly and Rose backtracked hastily.   
“I'm only joking, I know you don't do domestics.”  
“I would for you. We could leave this on?” he fiddled with the ring on her finger, refusing to meet her eye.   
She cupped his chin and pulled his head up to her. “I'd love that.”


End file.
